Fundamentals of Growth

In business, growth is an imperative, not an option. But only one in ten companies succeeds in achieving sustained, profitable growth. Growth strategy is at the heart of what we've done at Bain for more than 40 years. We help companies to reach full potential in their core business and pursue adjacencies that strengthen the core using a repeatable formula.

Growth is hard. Over the past decade, approximately 90% of companies worldwide failed to achieve sustained, profitable growth. We help companies seeking to join the elite group of sustained value creators by turning three common pitfalls into opportunities:

Too many companies leave money on the table in their core businesses. More than 80% of executives say they are not even close to achieving full potential in their core business. Our strategy consultants help companies find the untapped growth potential and unrealized cost savings in their core businesses.

While companies in mature markets need to expand their horizons, too often they diversify too far in pursuit of fast growth. We help our clients expand from a strong core into adjacencies by applying a repeatable formula.

Some companies hit a wall in their current business and fail to successfully redefine their core. We help firms find successful platforms, often within their own businesses, along with new customer insights and capabilities, to renew their business model.

Our Approach

We view growth in the context of the Focus-Expand-Redefine (F-E-R) cycle, which nearly every large enterprise moves through over time.

More strategic errors come from inadequate self-awareness than any other cause. Many management teams do not agree on the core and some have never even talked about it. In the focus phase, companies concentrate on building their core business to reach their full potential. They grow revenue, cut costs, improve operations, leverage differentiated capabilities and assets to build competitive advantage and develop innovations in their core products.

In the expand phase, companies take advantage of these capabilities and market positions to move into adjacent markets. They seek out new customer segments, new geographies, new distribution channels and new-but-related product lines. Adjacency moves offer one of the most effective ways for companies to achieve repeated bursts of new growth.

Our BothBrain® Innovation tool combines the creative and analytic talents within organizations to generate new ideas for adjacency expansion. We help clients accurately determine which adjacent businesses will add the most growth and value—while ensuring companies build off of a strong core and avoid overreaching—using a repeatable formula.

At some point, many companies find their growth and profitability tapering off or even declining. Whether due to market saturation, shifting profit pools or a change in the competitive or technological landscape, this is when a company moves into phase three and must redefine its core. During the redefinition phase, we help executives renew company strategy and capabilities. This work entails looking deep within their organizations to find undervalued, unrecognized or underutilized assets that can serve as new platforms for sustainable growth.

We develop insights that work for our clients. Our approach and recommendations are highly customized and lead to practical actions. Below is a selection of our experts' perspectives on important issues—for our clients and their industries. Visit Bain Insights and FoundersMentality.com to read more, or stay current on the topics you care about most by downloading the Bain Insights app today.